The present invention relates to an elevator system that comprises a plurality of hoistway doors arranged above each other that have horizontally movable hoistway door panels, as well as to an elevator car with a car door that has at least one horizontally movable car door panel. Stopping means that are arranged locationally fixed in the elevator hoistway act in conjunction with a stopping means that is fastened to the car door panel to limit an opening movement of the car door panel on occurrence of certain deviations of the stationary position of the elevator car from the intended stopping position.
Hereinafter, “intended stopping position” is to be understood as that position of the elevator car at which the level of its car floor exactly matches the level of that story in whose vicinity the elevator car is present at that time.
From JP04080191A an elevator system is known that comprises a safety device with the above mentioned characteristics. Present in this elevator system on the car door panel is a coupling element that projects in the direction of the door-side wall of the elevator hoistway that couples the car door panel with an oppositely situated hoistway door panel when the elevator car is sufficiently accurately present at a hoistway door level or story level. In each case, between vertically adjacent hoistway doors a vertically aligned stopping plate is fastened to the door-side inside wall of the elevator hoistway. This limits an opening movement of the coupling element that is fastened to the hoistway door panel, and thereby of the hoistway door panel itself, when the elevator car has stopped so far below the intended stopping position that is assigned to a hoistway door that the horizontal projections of the coupling element and of the stopping plate mutually overlap. The purpose of the safety device according to JP04080191A is to make the large and costly safety aprons that are fastened below the door sill of every hoistway door superfluous. Such safety aprons prevent a passenger from being able to fall into the space that is present between elevator car and door-side hoistway wall after the passenger has opened the car door of the car that is standing stationary below the intended stopping position.
In the elevator system according to JP04080191A, in the case of an elevator car that is standing too low, falling of a passenger into the space between elevator car and hoistway wall is indeed prevented when the elevator car has stopped at a level that is too low. Not prevented or limited, however, is opening of the car door and hoistway door when the elevator car is standing too far above the intended stopping position. In this situation, there is the danger that a passenger who attempts to exit from the car floor onto the hoistway floor falls through the hoistway door opening that is present below the car door sill and into the open elevator hoistway. Such a fall into the elevator hoistway could indeed be prevented by a sufficiently high safety apron that is fastened to the car door sill of the elevator hoistway and extends at least one meter downwards from there. However, such a safety apron requires a correspondingly deep hoistway pit below the level of the lowest hoistway door, which in certain constructional situations cannot be realized, or at the least causes substantial additional costs. In addition, the solution according to JP04080191A requires relatively long stopping plates in each space between vertically adjacent hoistway doors, the stopping plates needing to be fastened and aligned on the door-side hoistway wall with considerable outlay. It is also disadvantageous that in elevator systems with different distances between the stories, the lengths of the stopping plates must be adapted to the story distances.
In elevator systems in which over relatively large distances—for example over several story heights—no hoistway doors are present, a stopping plate must be installed that extends over the entire distance.